


Where I'm free

by wemightfall



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Recovery, Road Trips, Self-Discovery, Slow Burn, Travel, finding yourself, world trip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-21 16:36:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15561936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wemightfall/pseuds/wemightfall
Summary: It's been two years since the revolution ended and some days Connor still feels like a machine. He decides, he needs a break from his job at the police force. So he suggests to Hank they leave and spend some time traveling andlivinginstead.





	1. Chapter 1

It's been two years since the end of the revolution.  
A lot of things have happened since then.  
Androids were pretty much considered equal to humans now - at least that was what the law said. Some people continued to hate them and Connor thought that would probably take a long while to change.

He had went back to work with Hank as soon as they let him and they had been solving crimes together ever since then.  
But lately Connor could barely concentrate on his job anymore.  
It was all getting a little too much.  
He kept seeing blue blood and dead Androids in almost every case and it hurt.

He might have been made for this job, but deviant him wasn't.  
Connor wanted a break.  
From this job and from this life.  
And Hank needed one too, even if he would be to stubborn to ever say so.

He looked at the the other man, sitting next to him on the couch.  
“Hank?”, he asked.  
His mind palace had a thousand suggestions on how to broach the conversation, but none of them seemed right.  
“Yeah?”

Hank looked away from the television.

Connor fiddled with the coin in his hands.  
“I - I think I would like to take some time off work”, he settled on.  
Hank raised his eyebrows.  
“So what, you wanna go on vacation?”  
Connor hesitated.  
“Yes - No - I meant, for like a longer time?”  
Connor has never been so bad at formulating a sentence.  
“So like a sabbatical?”, Hank asked.  
“Something like that.”  
Hank was silent for a minute. 

“Well. I'm really gonna miss you at work, but if that's what you want -”  
“Actually I was hoping that you would join me.”  
Connor threw his coin in the air and catched it.  
And again.  
He tried to avoid looking at Hank.  
He could still feel the other man looking at him.

“What would you even want to do?”  
“I think I would like to travel for a bit. Just live.”  
Hank sighed.  
“I'll think about it”, he mumbled and got up.  
“Good night, Connor.”

Hank went to bed and Connor kept staring at his coin.  
His mind palace calculated a chance of around 50% of the Lieutenant actually agreeing.  
Not the greatest chance, but the man had managed to surprise Connor so often, he tried to not give it too much weight.

Humans really weren't as easy to calculate as his programming insisted. Or maybe that was just Hank, it was hard to tell.

Connor spend the rest of the night trying to come up with a plan to get Fowler to agree to give him this much time off.  
If it came down to it, he'd quit, but he wasn't sure if that was the smartest thing to do.  
Perhaps he'd want to come back to his job someday, although right now that felt uncertain.

Connor was quite glad when the morning came and he sat in Hank’s car. After his partner had consumed more coffee than could be healthy for anyone. He still looked tired.

Hank started the car.  
They drove through the city.  
“Alright, I think I like the idea. I've been working this job for too goddamn long”, Hank said.  
Connor smiled at him.  
“But you go talk to Fowler”, he added.  
“Alright, Lieutenant.”  
Hank sighed.  
“Think you might start calling me by my name now, kid?”  
“Sorry, Hank.”

The name still felt weird to say, for some reason.  
Like his programming found it impolite.  
Maybe another reason he wanted to leave.  
He had been doing what was expected of him for more than two years now and sometimes he almost felt like a machine again.

Maybe he needed to do some things he usually wouldn't to find out who he really was.  
And he wanted do that with Hank by his side.

They reached the precinct and Connor went straight to Fowler’s office.  
Despite his earlier calculations he wasn't sure what to say.  
Fowler looked already annoyed at seeing Connor this early, but he wasn't about to let that stop him.

He sat down on the stool in front of Fowler’s desk and began listing his points.  
The other interrupted him, groaning. 

“I'll find a replacement for you two and then you can go, I really don't care.”  
Connor smiled.  
“Thank you, Sir.”  
With that he left the office again.

He set down on his desk, opposite of Hank's and got started on some paperwork.  
“How did it go?”  
“Pretty well, I think.”  
“Hm. Good.”

Fowler found a replacement for Hank and Connor sooner than he had expected.  
And now Connor was standing in Hank’s bedroom and trying to get the other to finally finish packing.

“We're leaving tomorrow”, he reminded him for the fifth time now.  
Hank groaned.  
“Are you going to be like this the whole year? The point of vacation is to not stress, Connor.”  
Connor smiled.  
“Alright, I'm just gonna leave without you”, he teased.  
Not that he ever would do that.  
“It's my car, asshole”, Hank grumbled, but he was smiling.  
Finally the man stood up and finished packing.

The next morning came fast and Connor loaded their luggage into the trunk.  
He let Sumo onto the backseat and got onto the passenger seat.  
Hank fiddled with the car radio and slow jazz music started playing.

“Alright, where to first?”, Hank asked.  
Connor shrugged.  
He was kind of glad that he hadn't planned this trip much beforehand, even though his mind palace kept telling him that was impractical.

“Ohio?”, he proposed.  
“Alright”, Hank mumbled and started the car.  
Connor looked out the window.  
He could feel the wind in his hair and the warmth of the sun on his skin.  
They passed cars and houses and it didn't take very long for them to leave Detroit behind.  
For the first time in a while, Connor felt like he could forget all the things going through his mind.  
For the first time in two years, he felt free.


	2. Chapter 2

They had left Detroit behind and were driving fast on the highway.   
The radio was playing indie music now and Hank was singing along softly.  
Connor listened, smiling.

“I didn't know you could sing, Lieutenant.”, he commented.  
“For fucks sake, how many more times do I have to tell you, it's Hank?”  
“Sorry, Hank.” 

Connor bit his lip.  
He really had no idea why any of this was so hard.   
Hank looked over at him.

“You alright, kid?”  
Connor hesitated.  
“I sometimes wonder if I'm actually still a machine.”  
Hank raised his eyebrows.   
“You're alive, Connor.”  
“Then why -?”  
“Not even humans feel alive all the time, kid.”

Connor looked back at the radio.  
“Perhaps we should go sing karaoke.”  
Hank clearly realized his poor attempt at changing the conversation but still grinned.  
“You really want to go to a karaoke bar?”, he asked, a little disbelief in his voice.  
“We're on vacation”, Connor defended, sounding completely ridiculous.  
Hank grinned.  
“Fuck, we should have done this sooner.”

Connor smiled and resumed the looking out of the window.  
The further they drove away from Detroit, the more relaxed he was starting to feel.   
Perhaps Hank was right and he was more human than he felt.

Hank stopped at the next rest stop. He let Sumo out of the car and Connor followed.   
Hank spend a bit of time just walking around the rest stop with Connor and Sumo.  
He had said he had to stretch his legs.  
It was a weird feeling that overcame Connor.  
For Hank, sitting in the car for a while, not moving, got uncomfortable.  
For Connor, it didn't make a difference if the drive lasted five minutes or two hours. He felt absolutely the same.

It was jealousy or perhaps yearning he felt at Hank's human limitations.  
Hank looked at him and saw his LED spinning yellow for a good minute. 

“What's wrong, kid?”, he asked.  
Connor told him about his thoughts and the older man sighed.  
“Wanting what you can't have is perhaps the most human thing I can think off, Connor. I've envied you put not feeling pain or being able to fill out paperwork in seconds more times than I can count.”

The words did make him feel a little bit better.

“Thanks, Hank”, he said, this time forcing himself to use the correct name, no matter how hard it was.

Hank put his arm around him for a second.  
“Come on, there's a gas station and it ain't road trip if we don't start off getting a shitty souvenir from one.”

Connor could feel the touch of Hank's arm still linger long after he wasn't hugging him anymore, his skin prickling.

He let the other man guide him into the gas station.  
It didn't look any different than the one in Detroit right next to their workplace. But Connor didn't know the cashier here and for some reason that felt good.

Hank picked up one of the tacky shirts that were sold at the gas station. It were different one's than the ones sold in Detroit - through it had been a while since he had last looked at those - but they were tacky all the same.  
Hank held one up for Connor to see.

“It's terrible”, he commented dryly.  
Hank grinned.  
“I know.”  
Connor thought he'd probably never understand Hank's sense of fashion.

But after looking at the shirt for another minute, he had a thought.  
Even after two years had passed Connor was still wearing his Cyberlife jacket and he had been thinking about getting rid of it for some time now. There was a certain familiarity to it, that he clung to. But now, most days, all it reminded him off was dark times.

He probably could get a proper shirt in a clothing store somewhere.  
But buying that shirt was literally screaming against everything Connor would normally do. It was the right choice.

“I wanna get it”, he said.  
Hank laughed, actually laughed out loud.  
It wasn't a sound he got to hear often and it made Connor smile.

Hank bought the shirt for him and they got back in the car.  
Connor gave Sumo a few pats. He could feel Hank still looking at him.

“So, where to exactly? We're almost in Ohio”, Hank said.   
Connor thought for a moment.  
“How about Cincinnati?”, he proposed.  
“Alright.”  
With that they started driving again. 

“Should I search us a place to sleep there today or - ?”, Connor asked.  
Hank nodded and Connor connected with his inner network, looking at hotels and motels.

They both had managed to save some money over the last two years, but neither of them were rich.   
Connor didn't plan on spending too much money on their trip and he hoped they'd be able to make some money on the way, working a few small jobs.

But for now, he tried not to worry. His mind palace kept making suggestions to calculate the best plan for him and he shut them all down.

Instead, he turned up music again and tried to sing along this time. Hank had tried to encourage him to listen to music and by now Connor could almost manage to say if he liked a song or not without analysing it. 

But singing was still a new thing.  
He was basically just forming the words with with his mouth, trying to get some sounds out.   
Hank still smiled at him and sang along to the song with him.  
They reached Cincinnati soon enough.


	3. Chapter 3

Hank parked his car.  
Connor got out of the car and let Sumo out as well.  
The dog barked, clearly happy to have more room to move again.  
Connor petted him.

They started walking through a small park.  
Connor kept throwing a ball for Sumo to catch through the air time after time.  
Hank was watching them with a smile.  
In the same moment his stomach loudly reminded him to eat something. 

“Uh, Connor? Okay if we go eat something quick?”, he asked.  
Connor looked up at him.  
“Sure.”  
His LED was blinking yellow and Hank groaned.  
“Please don't search for a place based on how nutritious their food is again.”  
Connor blinked.  
“Alright, what would you like me to base my search on?”  
“Let's just walk ‘til we find a place”, he mumbled.  
Connor nodded.

Hank was a little surprised he didn't put up more of a fight.  
Usually the Android wouldn't shut up about his eating habits.  
Sometimes, he had caved and let him cook something healthy for him.

Connor was acting strange and Hank thought it was probably about what they had talked about in the car, about Connor still feeling like a machine some days.  
It was hard to understand for Hank. 

Connor pretty much wore his emotions on his face these days.  
He was was a lot different from the person he had met in the bar years ago.

But they had been swarmed with cases at work, often working long hours and barely having the motivation to do anything on the weekends.

Hank thought he would probably feel the same way as Connor, if he was in his position.  
Maybe this would be good for him, some time to figure out what he actually wanted. He probably should have done that way sooner than this.

Part of him had only agreed to this because he didn't like the thought of not seeing his partner for a year.  
But as he was standing here, looking at Connor and Sumo and feeling the sun on his skin, he was glad he had agreed.

Hank had barely felt alive since Cole died.  
His life had consisted pretty much only of work, drinking and playing Russian roulette.  
Sometimes he was surprised he was still alive.  
It didn't seem fair he got to keep on living while his son didn't.  
He had almost given up.

But then he had met Connor, and while that didn't fix anything, it gave him a little bit of hope again.  
Enough to keep going, day after day, until one morning his first thought wasn't that he wanted to die.

Hank couldn't help but wish Cole was here with them.  
But he was coping better with the fact that he wasn't than he had expected. 

Perhaps one far day away, when they got back home, he would put up his photo on the wall again.  
Maybe he'd ask Connor to help him. And hug him, if he could swallow his pride for a moment.

Hank stopped this train of thought and went back to watching Connor and Sumo, with a smile on his face.

He walked alongside Connor, now though the streets of Cincinnati. They passed many shops and people.  
Finally, they came by a bistro.

“Let's go in here”, Hank said.  
Shortly later, they were sitting on benches in the small bistro, opposite of each other.  
Hank took a quick look at the short menu and settled on ordering a burger.

“I wish I could eat”, Connor commented.  
“I thought Cyberlife is working on that?”  
“Yes, but it seems like it will take them a while to figure out.”

Cyberlife belonged to Elijah Kamski again.  
The business now mostly released upgrades for Androids and produced new ones for Androids who wanted to have kids.

Hank had been sceptical at the beginning - he had met Kamski after all - but so far him owning Cyberlife again had been a positive thing. Still, he didn't envie Markus for having to talk to the guy on a regular basis.

In that moment his burger arrived. Hank took a bite and made a face  
“Well. You're at least not missing out on anything with this“, he commented dryly and Connor grinned.  
“If you had let me -”  
“Shut up”, he grumbled, but smiled.

“I'm sure Kamski will manage it soon enough and I'm gonna make you eat only healthy stuff just as revenge.”  
“I'm an Android, it doesn't matter what nutritional value my food has.”  
Hank groaned.

“I can't believe we're friends.”  
“Best friends”, the Android added.  
“I really need to meet some new people”.  
Connor's grin got even wider.

“Tomorrow. I'd first like to get to our motel”  
Hank took another bite of his burger, but it unsurprisingly didn't taste any better.  
“Alright, kid”, he agreed.  
Hank paid and they left.

It was a short drive.  
They arrived at the motel and Connor unloaded their trunk.  
It was a small motel, a little bit run down.  
Hank was surprised Connor had picked it, but he didn't comment.

Sumo hopped straight onto the bed.  
Connor sat down on a chair.  
Hank lied down next to Sumo and petted the dog.

“So, any more plans for today?”, he asked.  
“No”, Connor simply said and smiled.

The Android got up only to sit back down on the bed again.  
He gently patted Sumo.

“I think I wanna just stay here right now. Besides, you're already tired.”  
“Please stop analysing me, for fucks sake.”  
“Alright. But based on the fact that you yawned multiple times in the last minutes I really didn't need to, to know that.”

Hank hit him with a pillow.  
“I hate you.”  
“You're lying, Hank.”  
He grumbled.

“Let's just watch some tv or something”, he suggested, looking for the remote control for the old television.  
Connor meanwhile turned it on with his mind palace. 

“You know, I'm not getting any more used to this.”  
“It's been two years.”  
“And my first phone was a flip phone. And now my best friend is a robot.”

Connor smiled and lied down next to Hank.  
He searched the programming and put on an old comedy.  
Hank already knew it but he still laughed at the jokes just the same.

They didn't stay up long after the movie finished. Hank fell asleep almost right after and Connor went back to his chair.  
He initiated statis mode without thinking about what tomorrow would look like.


	4. Chapter 4

Connor and Hank were standing in a museum.  
Hank looked up at the huge dinosaur skeleton that was standing in front of him.

“Cole loved dinosaurs, you know”, he commented and Connor reached out to hold his hand in support.   
“He had this one book with stories about dinosaurs and I had to read it to him every night, despite the fact that he knew them all by heart after a while.”

“Hank, if you wanna go -”  
Hank surprised himself, but he shook his head.  
“I don't think he would have liked it if I missed a fucking dinosaur exhibit. Besides, it's a nice way to remember him.”  
Better than staring at his picture and getting blackout drunk at least.   
“I just wish he were here.”  
“Me too.”  
Connor smiled. 

“Hey, do you think they'll bring dinosaurs back one day? With that new technology they developed?”  
Hank groaned.  
“There's literally any entire movie franchise based on why that's a bad idea.”  
Connor blinked.  
“Huh. There is. Interesting.”  
“I can't believe you haven't seen Jurassic Park.”  
“It's impossible for me to have watched every popular movie in the last two years, Hank”, Connor commented dryly.  
Hank rolled his eyes.  
“Gotta show you this one at least. Come on, let's look at the rest of the exhibition”, he said and let go of Connor's hand.  
He had only realized he was still holding it.

There were another dinosaur skeleton and lots of fossils.  
Connor stopped to look at everything with a curious face.  
He also stopped to read every single plate next to them, that had written information on them.  
Hank smiled a little at that.

“I thought I was the only one that did that.”  
Connor shrugged.   
“I like _reading_. It's nicer to learn things this way than just searching for them in my mind.”  
“Hm. I can see that. just - most people don't really like museums and kinda hurry through them, while I always stop to read everything. Glad that won't be a problem.”  
Connor smiled at him, it was of the rare, his whole face filling smiles and Hank felt warm.

They left the museum and took Sumo on his daily walk.   
The sun was shining bright and Connor proposed they could go visit a public swimming pool. 

Hank considered this for a moment.  
He hadn't been to one in years.  
His depression and the resulting body images issues he had had, stopped him from even considering the idea.

He still wasn't thrilled to be half naked in public.  
But it was warm and springing into some water sounded nice.

“Hank. Stop thinking so much”, Connor interrupted his thought process.  
“Okay. Fine”, he agreed reluctantly and soon they were sitting on towels in the green grass.

Kids were running around, laughing and shooting at each other with water pistols. Hank smiled.  
He had tried to get Cole to learn how to swim, but the kid had hated it. 

“Come on”, Connor said, pointing at a large water slide.  
Hank got up and followed him.

It took quite a bit of time, for them to get to the top, a big line of people waiting before them.

Connor got onto the slide and looked a little nervously at Hank.  
Hank followed him shortly after.  
They landed in the pool.

Hank immediately splashed water in Connor’s face.  
He looked at him so confused for a moment Hank couldn't help but laugh.  
But then Connor was splashing water as him as well.

They left the swimming pool after Hank ate some fries and headed back to the motel room.  
Hank felt tired and he could still smell the chlorine of the water on his skin.

“Figure out how to get the movie on the old tv, will ya?”, he asked Connor, before stepping into the shower.

He turned on the shower and got lost in thought.   
He hadn't had a day that was this _good _in a while and it was all thanks to Connor._  
Hank should thank him for getting him to leave with him some time soon.  
So far, he hadn't regret it one bit._

___Hank used to be extremely focused on his job, ever since he first started. It hadn't really changed when he got married.  
He had spend a lot less time with his husband and his child than he should have.  
If he ever got the chance to love someone like that again, he'd treat them better._

__He turned off the shower again and slipped on a hoodie and some sweatpants.  
Connor was already waiting for him, the movie loaded on the screen._ _

___Hank lied down on the bed next to him._  
“Alright, ready to watch a badass dinosaur movie?”  
“I really don't think a film from 1993 is gonna be that great”, Connor commented, with some amusement in his voice.  
“I can't wait to prove you wrong.”  
Connor started the movie and they both watched.  
Hank couldn't help but laugh as Connor tensed up when the T-rex appeared on the screen. 


End file.
